The birthing of an online shop

• June 9, 2017

A lot can change between blogs.
A week ago we went for a drive north to get a feel of where we might possibly be moving to. It was a lovely sunny day and we took quite a scenic drive almost as far as Port Waikato. We ended up in Pukekohe not feeling much wiser, and probably a little more despondent than when we left home. We had prayed for a rainbow and didn’t see one. By the end of the day we were a bit tired and grumpy and no further along in our decision of where to put down roots for our future.
Time is an interesting thing. With only 3 weeks to go until we leave on our trip to China, the pressure to find the perfect spot was becoming a bit stressful. The thought of packing to move to a yet unknown destination before a big trip was starting to take its toll. So it was time to rethink the plan.
The words “for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways”( Isaiah 55:8), has been ringing in my ears quite a lot lately. As we surrendered our will to the Father we both got a revelation that actually the place where we are living right now has everything that we were looking for somewhere else!
We had laid out our list of requests…..land on a hill…overlooking water…fertile soil…good water supply…nice views…rural outlook…the opportunity to have chooks…room for a container…
We have all that right here where we are! Plus more! We are so close to many lovely places, and I don’t think I have really appreciated what we were given almost 10 months ago now. It has taken me this long to realize that everything we wanted was right on our back door.
You know that feeling when you’ve been away, and you arrive home and just say ‘aaahhh it’s nice to be home?’. Well, I’m looking at our place with a completely different set of eyes this week, and probably for the first time in a while I am thankful for what we have right here. And actually, we don’t really need any extra pressure with everything else going on in our lives at the moment!
God placed us under Sanctuary Mountain for a reason. This is our sanctuary for now. I have always felt like ‘The Eye Of A Needle’ would be birthed here, and really, this blog is just the beginning of that.
So, once we got our heads around the fact that we are not moving in the next few weeks, we realized that we also have the perfect spot here for our online shop. This is not to say we will be here forever, but one has to start somewhere.
So this week I have completely packed up my studio, and moved out all unnecessary items to create space for a ‘virtual’ online shop – except that it’s in a real room.
We are awaiting the arrival of some lovely products which we bought back in March at the NZ Gift Fair. These products will be listed on the website in coming weeks, along with some of the stock which we were selling at the market. As we experiment with sales techniques and find out what is popular, things may chop and change a little bit on our product page as we test the market. I have heaps of fabric which I haven’t even touched yet, and the creative ideas are constantly evolving in my head.
This whole experience of building a website has certainly been challenging. I feel like I am learning something new every day, and let’s face it, we are never too old to learn new things. And the only way to find out if we are on the right track is to give things a go. Your feedback is
important too.
Please tell me whether you like what you are reading, and what you want to know more about. I have plenty of ideas up my sleeve, but can only do so much at a time!
We are a work in progress, but we firmly believe we are on the right track. One of the reasons we are going to China is to source products for our business. There will be more on that topic next week. By the way, a new skill I learnt recently is how to schedule posts ahead of time on Facebook. We hear there are some communication issues in China, so I am hoping to post our itinerary before we leave home…but that’s on next week’s ‘things to do’ list.
For now, there are photos to be taken and items to list on the products page. You can find the link to that page HERE.
https://www.theeyeofaneedle.co.nz/products/
Happy weekend people ????